Deity (26 page)

“As a precautionary measure.
We don’t have much
time to work with the pillar so I didn’t want to waste time trying to track
down alternative means of accessing the pillar ball should I need to. As it
turned out, I needed to.”

John
scowled, reaching a hand out expectantly. With a deep sigh, Matt withdrew the
museum pass from the top pocket of his own pack and slapped it into John’s
hand. This was turning into a mess. “Look,” he said in his own defense, “I’m
only borrowing the pillar ball so that we can study it with the pillar in situ.
I intend to return it when we’re done.”

John
irritably stuffed his notebooks, pencils, compass and other miscellaneous tools
into his pack. “And yet the FBI are knocking on my door!” he snapped, zipping
the pack shut with added emphasis. He stood and slung the pack over his shoulder.

“Where
are you going?” Matt asked, chasing after him.

“Sounds
like I have a lot to clean up in Mexico
City,” John growled. “Then I’m going home, if they
don’t send me to jail first.”

“You
can’t go.”

“I
refuse to work with someone I can’t trust.”

Dead
weight desperation collapsed Matt’s resolve. He needed John’s expertise, his
experience. Matt knew Izapa well enough, but it was Mayan cosmology that would
complete this journey and John’s astronomical knowledge was what he needed
most. John had to stay. Matt wasn’t one to grovel and beg, but in this case, he
was willing to go to extremes.

“Wait
a second, John,” Peet called, interrupting Matt from his next move. “If you
knew you needed an artifact from the museum, why didn’t you go back instead of
Matt?”

That
stopped the old man in his tracks. John turned to address the question, a
question that conveniently placed him on the defensive.

“Matt
called me down here to map the pillar’s location in relation to Izapa’s
monument groups and the major landmarks of the area,” John explained. “When I
saw the markings on the pillar, I recognized they matched the style of the markings
on a pillar ball I’d found in this area seventeen years ago.”

“So
the pillar ball really was your discovery.”

“It
was and I immediately turned it over to the museum, but I always remembered
that ball for its unique markings. Most pillar balls have no markings at all.”

“I
was hoping John might find an astronomical significance to this pillar and
ball,” Matt added.

“That
was going to take some time and like Matt said, we’re running short on time, so
I agreed to stay and continue the work Matt couldn’t do while he retrieved the
pillar ball.” John glared at Matt. “But I didn’t expect you to steal the artifact.
When did you become such a thief?”

“Don’t
fool
yourself
,” Peet said. “Surely you haven’t forgotten
his religious exchange experiment.” He turned on Matt. “I doubt you asked a Jew
for a copy of the Torah, or a Muslim for the Koran. You probably even stole a
copy of the Book of Mormon from your own university, didn’t you?”

“The
Book was mine,” Matt said irritably. “And all the other texts were eventually
returned to their rightful owners. It will be the same with the pillar ball
when we are through with it.”

“Do
you not remember the eighth Commandment of Moses,” Father Ruiz interrupted. “Thou
shalt not steal?”

Matt
felt his frustration mounting. The last thing he needed was to answer to a priest.
“And those without sin shall cast the first stone,” he snarled.

The
priest retracted. John started to leave once again.

“John,
please—”

“I
refuse to associate myself with an antiquities thief,” he said.

“I’m
not a thief,” Matt insisted. “I was desperate and pressed for time. That’s all.
We’ve come this far. Aren’t you the least bit curious how all of this fits
together?”

John
hesitated.
A good sign.

“We’re
on the path to something big here,” Matt continued. “Don’t you want to know
where all of this will end?”

“Wait
a minute,” Peet interrupted. “What path? What are you talking about?”

“I
believe this pillar and ball will lead us to the exact location where Jesus
gave knowledge of his second coming to the Maya people.”

“Don’t
be ridiculous,” Father Ruiz murmured beneath his breath.

Peet
shook his head. “What are you talking about, Matt?”

“The
original Long Count Calendar! This knowledge was given to the Maya people to
count down earth’s last days—to the time of His second coming!”

Thrones
And
Pillars

Peet
glanced at John who appeared as unwilling to speak his mind as he was. Somewhere
in all of Matt’s religious academia he’d fallen off course. Somewhere in
all his
search to find truth through the similarities found
in different religions, Matt had led himself into archaeological delusions. But
neither he nor John was prepared to counter the ridiculous notions of a
colleague. After all, some of the world’s most amazing archaeological
discoveries came out of someone’s crazy ideas.

However,
Father Ruiz wasn’t about to be held back by such academic decorum.

“You’re
reasoning is not supported anywhere in Biblical teaching,” the priest
challenged.

KC
moaned as she distanced herself from the conversation.

Father
Ruiz paid no attention to her protest. “Only the Father knows the timing of
Jesus’ second coming. Nobody on earth can put a date to it, let alone a
location. Besides, according to Revelations, Jesus will not establish his new
kingdom on earth until after the rapture and the seven stages of the Tribulation.
How do you expect all that to happen in the one day we have left in the Long
Count Calendar?”

Matt
clenched his jaw. “I didn’t say I knew how God would work out his plan. All I’m
suggesting is that we have the opportunity to be at the right place at the
right time. Imagine. Wouldn’t you like to be the first disciple Jesus sees when
he returns?”

Peet
sighed. He had to admit that he knew as little about the Mormon faith as anyone
outside the church, but he suspected Matt had derailed his own beliefs. After
all, he had been dismissed from BYU and excommunicated from the Church of Latter Day Saints. But if there was one
thing he understood about religion it was how strongly it affected people and
the way they viewed the world around them.

“With
all due respect, Matt,” he began, “
aren’t
you afraid
of jumping to conclusions? After all, there’s no convincing evidence that your
fresco represents Jesus coming to the New World,
let alone serving as a signpost to the very first Long Count Calendar ever
used.”

Matt
smiled. “Why do you think Chac calls it his Calendar Deity?” he challenged. “Who
or what the figure is or represents may be debatable, but there’s no question
that it serves as a trail marker.”

“How
can you be so sure?”

“Take
another look at that pillar.”

If
only to humor him, Peet walked back to the pillar. He studied it more closely,
starting with the gear shaped hole at the top. From there his eyes dropped and
that’s when he recognized four lines running down the length of the stone, two
were perfectly vertical and perfectly parallel to each other. The other two
were also parallel to each other, but they ran about thirty degrees from
vertical. At the very bottom of each pair, half hidden behind the grass and
undergrowth, he noticed peculiar markings that looked like…feet.

One stepping in front of the other.

“Legs?”
he asked.

“Not
just any legs,” Matt said.
“The legs of Jesus.”

“You
mean the Calendar Deity,” Peet said.

“Whatever.
In either case, they are the same legs that are on the figure from which the
Kin piece came.”

John,
with pack still slung over his shoulder, reluctantly ambled back to the pillar.
What had stopped him from marching straight out of the jungle, Peet couldn’t be
sure. Perhaps he took into consideration the risky cost of leaving his survey
equipment behind. John had always been one to resist wasted expenses. Or
perhaps he suddenly remembered their only means of transportation was the Jeep,
and getting the keys off of Matt was out of the question.

Most
likely however, Matt had piqued John’s curiosity, and curiosity was a hot
button for men like them. It was the force that drove the scientific community
as a whole to push boundaries and look at horizons beyond all reason.

“Matt
recognized the legs and the pillar’s connection to the Kin piece,” John said,
“but it wasn’t until I realized the Calendar Deity’s hands were etched into the
pillar ball that we began putting the pieces of this puzzle together.”

“So
the effect is a life-sized etching of the Calendar Deity carrying a pillar ball
in his hands,” Peet speculated.

“Not
a pillar ball, but the world,” Matt said. “Jesus holds the world between his
hands.”

“Whatever
the interpretation,” John said, “the direction in which these artifacts face
cannot be determined until we have the two pieces together.”

“Why not?”
Peet pressed. “The fresco showed the
Calendar Deity holding out a ball in the same direction that his feet were
pointing. Therefore, one could assume the front of the pillar ball would face
in the direction the pillar’s feet are pointing without actually having the
ball physically on site.”

“Not
so fast,” John said. “Walk around the pillar.”

With
a shrug, Peet did as instructed and immediately recognized the problem. As he
made his way around the pillar, he found not just one pair of legs but four,
essentially a pair for each of the four directions.

“How
are we to know which set of legs the hands are supposed to be paired with if we
don’t
have the pillar ball?” John asked.

“But
the ball could be placed in any position,” Peet observed.

“That’s where the Kin piece comes in,” Matt said. “There’s
one gear tooth that’s slightly broader than the others on the Kin piece. I call
it the primary tooth and it fits into only one space in the pillar. Essentially,
the Kin piece can fit only one certain way.”

He
took the piece back from Peet and slipped it into the hole on top of the
pillar, this time with the Kin glyph facing down so that the two ridges on the
backside now faced upward. He then picked up the pillar ball and rolled it in
his hands so that Peet could see the underside. There, Peet was surprised to
find a small neck, only centimeters in length, and at the base of the neck were
two ridges similar to those on the Kin piece.

“And
the ball doesn’t just sit in any position,” Matt added.

He
hefted the ball onto the pillar and carefully centered it until the neck fell
into the recess left by the Kin piece. He then shifted the ball until its
ridges clicked against those of the Kin piece, locking it into position.

“So,”
KC said impatiently. “Where is this headless Calendar Deity pointing to?”

John
frowned, clearly not pleased with the results. “To the south,” he said.

“What’s
to the south?”

“Ocean,”
Matt replied with a disappointed tone.
“Nothing but ocean.”

* * * *

Matt
struggled to make sense of the pillar. South was the last direction he expected
it to face. To make matters worse, John quickly discovered with use of his
compass, the pillar wasn’t even pointing to true south. In fact, it was
twenty-three degrees off to the west.

“This
may not be an entirely random position,” John said. “The monuments of Group B
largely face twenty-three degrees northeast. That’s a full one hundred and
eighty degrees from this pillar.”

“So
why would this pillar face backwards?” Matt asked.

“Just
to make life difficult,” KC groaned.

Peet
shared a glance with Matt. “She may be right,” he said. Matt waited for an
explanation, so Peet continued. “If there’s any importance to this original
calendar you’re looking for, why wouldn’t the Maya want to keep it from outsiders
looking for it?”

“It’s
early yet to jump to any conclusions,” John interrupted. “We really must
examine all the facts available to us.”

“Or
there could be more to the pillar,” Peet suggested, stepping back up to the
stone marker. “Instead of carrying the world, what if the Calendar Deity is
turning the world?”

He
placed his hands over the hands carved into the ball and leaned into it. The
ball began to move but to his surprise, that wasn’t the only thing that turned.
As he strained against the stone, the pillar itself began to rotate! As
everyone watched, he turned the pillar a quarter turn, then half a turn until—